AfterDawn: News

Thailand YouTube ban lifted

The Thai government has lifted a ban on Google's video sharing giant, YouTube, after YouTube reportedly agreed to block videos that are considered illegal in the country or are deemed offensive to Thai people or monarch. If true, such a ban on content of course would more than likely be localized. YouTube has been banned in Thailand since April 4th after users posted videos considered offensive to the monarch.

One of the videos depicted King Bhumibol Adulyadej's image with the soles of shoes pointed towards him. In Thailand, feet are considered extremely dirty and offensive by the people. The video's audio Track contained the country's national anthem. The Nation newspaper reported that Sitthichai Phokai-udom, the Information and Communication Technology Minister, said the ban was lifted because YouTube agreed not to run clips that are offensive to the monarch.



Google has not yet confirmed or denied the report, but was interested in getting the ban lifted as soon as possible. "We have the deepest respect for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej," Google wrote earlier this year in a letter to the ministry. "We likewise respect Thailand's law and tradition and hope that we will be able to reach a mutually acceptable resolution to the current controversy." Back in May, there was talk of a criminal lawsuit against Google on charges of "lese-majeste", which carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

Source:
Yahoo (AP)

Written by: James Delahunty @ 31 Aug 2007 5:00

• Previous article

• YouTube signs royalty deal for the UK

• Next article

• Acer, Huala Group support Blu-ray

• 7 comments

• ZippyDSM

  Heil to censorship heil! heil!

  31.8.2007 08:38 #1

• georgeluv

  nice, its good to see that google will fold like a paper napkin even in the most small and insignificant markets in the name of the almighty advertising dollar. if they will give in like this for f#cking thailand imagine how far they would bend over backwords to keep the american market if our government mandated censorship?

  31.8.2007 09:47 #2

• BcMester

  They have no backbone at all, they'd rather cut off their own balls just to keep that 0,05% of market share... I foresee this censorship tendency will get more and more widespread, until the Internet will split up to a large, heavily censored "official" part and a smaller, underground "free" part. I give it 5 years.

  31.8.2007 10:34 #3

• Unfocused

  Quote:criminal lawsuit against Google on charges of "lese-majeste", which carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years. So, what did they intend to do, take Google off-line for awhile?

  31.8.2007 15:41 #4

• madman91

  In 10 years, when google has purchased every company, they will buy thailand just to get even... and china too :-)

  7.9.2007 21:15 #5

• borhan9

  Well google/youtube has to realise that they have to be culturally sensetive to other countries around the world.

  9.9.2007 23:32 #6

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by borhan9: Well google/youtube has to realise that they have to be culturally sensetive to other countries around the world.thus why it limited free information in athortarina governments and comming soon tot eh US anything the corporations don't like you will not see on the net!

  10.9.2007 05:25 #7